Some welcome sunshine for a change

Meteorologically-speaking, winter comes to a close this week, but we all know that a cool start to Spring is nothing unusual.

And the outlook suggests as such, insists Oldham weather expert Jon Baylis.

There will be some welcome sunshine over the coming days with high pressure in charge and winds lighter than recently.

There could well be some stubborn mist and fog which will keep areas cold, whereas areas with sunshine, will really start to feel some strengthen in that sun now

Here's Jon's latest in-depth forecast:

Today (Thursday): High pressure will start to build from the southwest.

This means a better day in prospect with sunny spells and any early showers will decay.

It will be quite breezy into the afternoon, but winds will fall light overnight.

Cold overnight under clear skies which should be good for seeing the seven-planet alignment.

It will also mean some areas of fog will develop and we will have a frost.

Max 9°C Min -1°C.

Friday: The high pressure will now establish itself across the region and with light winds the fog to start could be stubborn to clear in places, but when it does clear or if you start the day without the fog, it should be a lovely day with plenty of sunny spells and just some fair-weather cloud bubbling up.

Light winds and pleasant if you manage to get out and about in the sunshine.

Another chilly night ahead with areas of mist and fog with a patchy frost.

Max 9°C Min 0°C.

Weekend: High pressure in control of the weather.

Saturday: The high pressure will drift a little bit further to the south which will allow a bit more in the way of cloud at times, but we should still see some sunny spells and it will be dry with slight frost to start. Light winds.

Not as cold overnight.

Max 9°C Min 2°C

Sunday: it should be another dry day but cloud amounts will start to increase as we see more of a westerly airflow across the region.

So we can expect bright spells with some thicker cloud at times which just might be thick enough for a bit of drizzle on the hills later in the day.

Breezy later and no frost expected overnight.

Max 10°C Min 4°C.

Outlook: The high pressure that will have brought us the recent settled spell, will now start to slip even further south into France.

This means winds will come in off the Atlantic and with a squeeze in the isobars, it will turn quite windy into Monday and Tuesday.

This will also bring more in the way of cloud with the odd shower possible but equally some bright spells in between.

At this stage, midweek does look quite promising with the cloud breaking up, allowing for some decent spells of sunshine, but this far out, as always, don’t hold your breath.

Later in the week we could see a return to unsettled weather from the southwest.

But one thing for sure, next week shows no sign of any significant cold to start Spring or any significant warmth with temperatures just hovering around average and no storms expected.

Follow @ChadWeather on X and Bluesky for the latest forecasts and warnings.

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